The Mariners have claimed outfielder Travis Jankowski off waivers from the Mets, per a team announcement. Left-hander Danny Young was designated for assignment to open a spot on the roster. Seattle also announced that outfielder Marcus Wilson, who was designated for assignment Friday, cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma. Jankowski was designated for assignment after the Mets acquired Tyler Naquin from the Reds.
Jankowski, 31, will give the Mariners some speed and defense in the outfield while they wait on Julio Rodriguez and Mitch Haniger to mend. He hit just .167/.286/.167 in 63 plate appearances with the Mets earlier this season but is a lifetime .236/.320/.311 hitter in 1214 plate appearances at the MLB level. He’s out of minor league options, so it could be a reasonably short stay for Jankowski in Seattle if Haniger and Rodriguez are able to return in relatively short order.
Young, 28, made his big league debut this season when he allowed three runs in 3 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. He’s had a solid season in Tacoma, tossing 28 innings of 3.86 ERA ball while punching out 40 of the 118 opponents he’s faced (33.8%) against just nine walks (7.6%). Young doesn’t throw hard, averaging just 89.2 mph on his sinker, but he has a huge 55.7% grounder rate in Triple-A and all three minor league options remaining, so its feasible another club could take a look at him as a depth option. The Mariners will have until tomorrow’s deadline to trade him and can otherwise place him on outright waivers at any point in the next five days.
This has to be a biggest move of the day.
Travis weighs 190 pounds and Danny weighs 200 pounds, so maybe…
According to that Camden dude from the thread the other day, the Mariners just acquired a future first ballot Hall of Famer for peanuts.
THE STOVE IS HOT
There it is Dream GM. The BIG one.
Forget Soto Ohtani. This is the move I been looking forward too. Bold move waiting on a waiver claim for a 370 ops player. A plus plus plus for M’s.
Whew. Got the big Bat we needed so badly.
He doesn’t need a bat. He is going to walk, steal bases, and score runs. Leave the bat in the dugout because it will only slow him down.
Finally. Now that the prize of the deadline Jankowski is off the table teams will fall back to plan B Soto. Thought the fire was hot now it’s going to go nuclear.
Buster?
Tim?
Peter?
Who needs Luis Castillo when you’re able to pick up Travis Jankowski? The rich keep getting richer. Never would have dreamed the Mariners would get the best bat at the deadline after they got the best pitcher too.
On purpose?
Unreal. Just let him walk to the Mariners. A former first round pick with 92nd percentile sprint speed, 98th percentile BB% and Chase Rate, and gold glove defense at all 3 positions
In the 80s pre-moneyball he would have been one of the most valuable players in the league
Von Hayes level player just sitting in waivers. Unreal
And great hair! What’s not to love?
If the Cubs had dumped Jason Heyward for Jankowski in 2016 they would have got better defense and better OBP, more stolen bases and runs out of that slot for the 7 years theyve had Heyward
It’s hard to steal bases and score runs when you bat .167. Even with the walks his OBP is .286.
He has a 47 wRC+ and .225 wOBA for crying out loud. I liked the guy but he’s not a major leaguer.
Oh here’s the latest genius to cite a .167 average over 64 PA with many of the at bats days, weeks, months apart
The little regular playing time Jankowski was given early in the season from April to mid May he was hitting .321/.406/.321
Mind boggling 99% of the casuals here can’t grasp that a .164 average spread out over 64 PA and 4 months is not a metric to base anything on
But even with those 64 PA’s he had 8 walks and a 12.5 BB%. That’s about 70 walks projected over a full season . For the casuals, that’s a lot of walks. Coupled with a .260 average that he’d likely have being a starter that’s almost a .380 OBP, with elite 92 sprint speed
Nobody can maintain a healthy average with erratic and limited playing time
Thankfully the Phillies or Braves didn’t get him. Last thing you want in a tight 1-1 game in the 9th is Jankowski coming to the plate
He’s had two seasons where he almost reached 400 ABs yet his career wRC+ is 77 and his career wOBA is .284.
I know you’re the greatest general manager that’s ever lived and you eat metrics for breakfast, but give it up dude.
lmao. I know you love him and he’s your special little guy, but he’s just not that good, Mrs. Jankowski.
Uh but those were stats from 4 and 6 years ago
JUST LAST YEAR, I repeat, last year he hit .252 with a .364 OBP and the statcast data says he was 98th percentile in BB% and chase rate
Genius, you’re citing stats from 4 and 6 years ago. Robinson Cano hit .298/.350/.533 6 years ago, so like, Robinson Cano is awesome
What another complete clown
You’re the one that insinuated that not getting consistent at bats doesn’t count. You’re completely writing off his numbers this season because it’s a small sample size yet you’re harping on his numbers from last season which were from… Drumroll… A small sample size. The numbers I mentioned are his CAREER stats. Only the at bat totals I mentioned were from those seasons. The point is that he’s sucked for his entire career no matter how many at bats he’s gotten.
Since you care about last season so much, his wRC+ was 93 (7% below league average) and his wOBA was .312 (8 points below league average) and those are the best totals from his career. Even in his best performance he’s a below average hitter. I really don’t get what you’re missing here.
Yes, he’s fast and plays good D. A lot of guys that aren’t on major league rosters are very fast and play good D. And they’re not on major league rosters because they negatively impact their team offensively.
I’m literally a Mets fan that watched him play every day and I like the guy. But I’m also realistic.
The wRC+ (and OPS+) is low because of power
With players like Jankowski who are league average AVG with elite BB% you have to throw the secondary metrics away and just look at the OBP
In 1983 Steve Sax hit .281/.342/.350 with 56 stolen bases and had a 94 OPS+. His career OPS+ was 95 yet he was a five time all-star. Mainly because of his defense at 2B and his OBP and speed
There are many other examples of players like this. Jankowski would have likely made multiple all-star teams back then
Things are evaluated differently now, often for the worse. Jankowski remains an incredibly value outfielder
Instead of Jankowski, players like Odubel Herrera, Victor Robles, and Nick Senzel are the ones who get regular starts, all because they have some power threat
The fact Nick Senzel (and many others) have had more ABs than Jankowski just because they’re able to hit a double or two more, maybe the spare HR, is a travesty
He’s a player that would have been at CF a perennial all-star before the moneyball movement
We get it. His metrics say he just added another 100 wins to the mariners team this late in the season. The % of scoring on a walk are pathetically low but you score on. 100% of home runs. So yes, players with a little lower are infinitely preferred over dudes who love live of their vans. Even players with just double power are preferred. Your brother is a bad player, and this isn’t the 80’s.
Jankowski is terrible dude, will be DFA in a week or two when Julio is back.
@pin you don’t even have any idea who he is and haven’t even seen a single one of his at bats
He was in high demand in the offseason and ended up getting $1.25 million from the Mets. Substantial amount for a backup outfielder
Novices just say “he sucks” without knowing anything about it
It’s not ‘novices’. It’s MLB talent evaluators. Mets dumped him and a bunch of teams passed on claiming him before the Mariners grabbed him. You are clueless. He’s a pinch runner and a late-inning defensive replacement and nothing more.
He was not in high demand, he got a minor league contract that paid him slightly more than league minimum if he cracked the 26 man roster.
I know you shared one glorious evening with him back @SUNY stony brook a decade ago, it’s okay to admit he’s not very good.
@mrk Nope, he got $1.25 million if he made the roster. How did it get up to $1.25 million genius? Multiple teams bidding on him
He stated publicly he had many other offers son
You don’t know anything about it, or baseball. You haven’t seen a single Jankowski at bat, and even if you did, you wouldn’t know how to evaluate it properly anyway
He had many other minor league deals janlover.
I watched him in Philly last season and I’d say “sucks” is a serious understatement. Dude is only fast, but can’t actually use his speed well.
Good for Jank to land on his feet with Seattle.
Laugh all you want, but he is a great team player. Plays a good outfield and a speedster who is a useful pinch runner.
The Phillies will go to Odubel Herrera the Reds to Nick Senzel when an elite gold glove CF with the potential to hit .280/.380/.400 and steal bases is just sitting in waivers
Mind boggling
Print yer World Series tickets… We got Travis Jankowski and Jonathan Villar!
A smart, forward-thinking GM with a CF problem would have claimed Jankowski and started him regularly in CF
The rest follow the herd-think that he’s relegated to a backup OF
So many bears, so few bulls
the important thing is that he is a former Red.
touche
To the novices here, a.364 OBP is a big deal, ok. Jankowski was on pace for 88 walks last season. That’s a big deal for someone who can play CF at a gold glove level and has 92nd percentile sprint speed
If you start Jankowski regularly in CF and he gives you a .370 OBP from the leadoff spot with the speed youll see a massive uptick in run production from that
@Camden
You sure are persistent. Why do you assume his OBP would be .364? Most here would argue that it’s an outlier, and that his projected OBP would be closer to his .320 career OBP. You mentioned others peaked in their young or mid 20’s, but Jankowski is somehow going to be better than ever?
This dude is either Jankowski’s agent or an immediate family member.
I assume based on his 157 PA from last year which is a good enough sample size to conclude that’s what you’re getting
If it were under about 120 PA it would not be enough to assume anything
Also, the 12.5 BB% from this year is decent evidence that his “eye” skill hasn’t deteriorated
Based on his 2016 and 2018 stats where he hit .245 and .259 in 383 and 387 PA, you can safely conclude he’ll hit anywhere in the .240 to .260 range
That means it’s almost a guarantee that given regular playing time he would hit about .260 with a .370 OBP. That’s about 82 walks
If you slot that in the top of the order regularly in front of Harper, Schwarber, Hoskins, Castellanos for example you can expect 75 to 90 runs
In addition, Jankowskis ability to cut the gaps in the outfield with ++ range is worth at least 4 to 5 wins
That’s what the reds kept saying about Billy Hamilton to until the realized players with speed only aren’t major leaguers.
Man if I was the Twins GM I would just trade Nick Gordon for whatever and then simply claim Travis Jankowski on waivers. I’d instantly have about a 6 win boost from Jankowski over Gordon and instantly I’d have a vastly superior CF than about half the league
Mariners just claimed off waivers a CF that is better than about 65% of the CF’s around the league and they’re just going to DFA him once Julio Rodriguez gets back
The incompetence is mind boggling
The incompetence is incredibly mind boggling
Who says Jankowski will for sure be DFAed when Julio comes back? Maybe they’ll keep him, and send Kelenic back to AAA. Kelenic still looks like he did at the beginning of the season before he was sent down. As for Haniger, I am not counting on him to be injury-free for the rest of the season.
Just so we’re clear, a 98th percentile Chase Rate which Jankowski has on statcast means that only 2%, or 8 players in the entire league have a better Chase Rate than Jankowski
That means all the nasty sliders, all the cutters off the plate, which other hitters swing at Jankowski doesn’t
To the tune of a 98th percentile BB%. Only 8 players in the entire league have a better BB%
If that weren’t enough already, he hits for an acceptable league-average AVG AND has 92 sprint speed AND plays CF with elite range
I’m doing a great service to GMs in baseball. Perhaps they’ll see these messages and realize Jankowski is a vast step up from Nick Gordon, Odubel Herrera, Victor Robles, Nick Senzel, Jesus Sanchez, etc etc and even good hitting CF’s like Myles Straw
@Camden
I think your service might be too valuable. It’s just a matter of time before a MLB owner reads your posts and fires the entire front office. Why should he pay them when 97% of them don’t know what they are doing. The owner will just come to MLBTR and get free advice from you.
I for one also hope they keep Jankowski around for a bit. Dipoto likes to talk about “lengthening the lineup”, and guys with good OBPs can sure help. I’m glad the M’s snapped this guy up.
I think about what the Yankees are able to pick up,, and then I get tired of it. And this keeps going on. OH….. that’s right the only relief were going to get is in the pen.